which salt

He's probably just going by the mixing volumes on the bucket or box.

Exactly,
It mixes to about 1.022 to 1.023 per 50gal bag, I keep my tank at 1.025.
Because I keep 50 gal always mixed i constantly have to use some from another bag to supplement and bring up the salinity. So where with higher end salt I never find myself having to do that.
Just bought a box of IO reef crystals and already mixing 50 gal, the salt is about 80% dissolved, and thats just within about 6 hours.
 
It could be just me getting a bad batch but I rather upgrade and go for a better mix for my corals and fish.
And I pay $16 USD for the coralife salt and $23 USD for IO reef crystals :spin3: isnt much of a difference with price but Much better quality.
 
I'm yelling because I am super excited with new salt with caps on for emphasis. Possibly someone else will try it and yell too. Mammothreefer I have read your posts in the past an know you also like large colonies and mariculture corals, you should try Royal Nature it really helps colonies stay healthy. I think people evaluate salt for some of the wrong reasons, like how well it dissolves, how much the container says it makes, ca,kh qty in mix. I agree you would like normal parameters out of the box, but I think RN salt mixes well, it does mix very close to nsw. I really think you just need to look how the coral looks after a month or so and how it is responding.

Yes I do carbon dose. I really can not see how you can keep nitrate and phosphate down with out it, with amount of food I feed is crazy. I typically feed about a one pound frozen food pack a month, with 2 to 3 feeding a day. My fish are plump, or at least that is the goal.

I used Reef crystals for a long time and had no problem with it, also used TM for years. Never tried EVS, but heard good things about it.

Mammothreefer would like to see your wild colonies in a video, I know you are a good reef keeper and would like to see your tank.
 
I have been using the reef crystals in my reef tank for the last 18 mths and never had any problems. I get good growth and stuff. I keep my SG at 1.026
 
Started to use aquavitro salinity and I like it. Takes a bit to mix but I have no issue then again my ranks pretty new.
 
from what i have gathered, royal nature, red sea and d-d h20cean are all made from evaporated sea water. i have tried them all and all do a very nice job.
having said that, i have also used coralife, kent, reef crystals and io and never had any real problems with any..
if you are using a calcium reactor or balling or using two part additives, i'm not sure what a salt with added elements does for you..
most of the major brands have refined their product to the point that they will all do a pretty decent job...
personally, i have used both io reef crystals and h2ocean and had stellar results with each..
 
was using Red Sea Coral Pro and when the price went up I got Seachem Reef but I am going back to Red Sea Coral Pro. Seachem Alk is 6 dKh in the 200g box I got
 
I would hope that by now everyone would understand you cannot take dehydrated sea water, re-hydrate it and get the sea water you started with. It is a brilliant marketing ploy to make people believe they are buying a salt mix that will be the same as the water from the Red Sea. The chemistry doesn't work but these companies have no problem letting you make that assumption. Even if they start with dehydrated sea water they still have to add back the things that do not re-hydrate correctly which makes it not any different than manufactured aquarium salt.
 
I don't buy Red Sea Coral Pro because of how its made. I buy it because after trying a bucket of Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, Corallife, Seachem, and Kent, my tank reacted the best to Red Sea Coral Pro.
 
People lose weight, drop their blood pressure, elevate their moods, etc etc, all by taking a little sugar pill, it is called the placebo effect. You believe it is better therefore for you it is better. All of the major brand salts work, and people have beautiful tanks with every brand of salt out there, it is virtually impossible to quantify that salt A will make your corals healthier than salt B. the little additives that some companies add to help justify a higher price don't really make a bit of difference. One look at the health and beauty of people like Emster using plain old IO is a pretty good indication that salt is not the deciding factor. There is nothing wrong with using any brand salt you want but no salt replaces husbandry or gives any clear advantage over any other salt, if it mixes the way you like then that is what's important.
 
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Well, I've been using Salinity or RSCP since I've gotten back in the game and corals looked pretty darn good to me. Then I caught a sweet deal at Xmas on Reef Crystals. 90% of my corals lost thier vibe within 3-4 weeks and totally paled or browned on me. Unfortunately no placebo effect here. Switched back today. I'm not quite convinced all salts are good for any aquariums.
 
I do understand what you are saying, but if it were a fact that Reef Crystals browns out corals then there would no be so many people who use it without that issue. I personally don't like Reef Crystals, I see no need in adding vitamins to a salt but there is no denying that people use it successfully so it is hard to blame the salt. Far too often salt gets the blame when there is probably a different issue, but it is easy to blame the salt. If there was a salt problem, it would be widespread and not localized to one tank. There have been salt inconsistencies with just about every brand on the market, so it does happen, but it happens in large batches so the effects are noticed with lots of people. I hope that makes sense?
 
I'm yelling because I am super excited with new salt with caps on for emphasis. Possibly someone else will try it and yell too. Mammothreefer I have read your posts in the past an know you also like large colonies and mariculture corals, you should try Royal Nature it really helps colonies stay healthy. I think people evaluate salt for some of the wrong reasons, like how well it dissolves, how much the container says it makes, ca,kh qty in mix. I agree you would like normal parameters out of the box, but I think RN salt mixes well, it does mix very close to nsw. I really think you just need to look how the coral looks after a month or so and how it is responding.

Yes I do carbon dose. I really can not see how you can keep nitrate and phosphate down with out it, with amount of food I feed is crazy. I typically feed about a one pound frozen food pack a month, with 2 to 3 feeding a day. My fish are plump, or at least that is the goal.

I used Reef crystals for a long time and had no problem with it, also used TM for years. Never tried EVS, but heard good things about it.

Mammothreefer would like to see your wild colonies in a video, I know you are a good reef keeper and would like to see your tank.

I haven't tried a new salt in a long time. Last time I tried to switch salts I went to RSCP and I almost lost my entire tank since then I've stuck with IO. I gotta buff it a little bit, but I buy it in bulk when it's on sale and it hasn't let me down in all the years unlike RC & RSCP. I do really like hW I just can't justify the price tag. I also tried D+D, and a few other ones but I either didn't like the #'s or the $$.

Royal natures stats look spot on for where I want to keep my tank, and your tank looks great. I'm not having much luck finding it for sale though?

Thanks for the compliments. I really would like to take a video I tired to take one with my gopro but I have the wrong housing and everything distorted.
 
I used Tropic Marine Pro for the 1st 2 years. Had ok results. Went with this salt because I wanted to use Zeovit. The past year, I stopped doing that to keep things simple. Switched salt to NeoMarine. Colors are nicer and it cost less.
 
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